The first and most important thing to do to enable a
successful enema is to RELAX! Copy these instruction to refer to during
the process. Find a comfortable place to lie down near your toilet.
If you use your bed, place a water-proof covering under an absorbant
towel to lie on. If you prefer the floor, treat yourself also to
something soft to lie on. Find a picture of the colon http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/anatomiccolon/anatomiccolon.pdf
so you are familiar with its shape. Put on some soothing music, do
some deep breathing, and give yourself ample time and privacy.

Experiment with water temperature; most people are comfortable with
water close to the body's natural internal temperature of 98 degrees.
You can test it on the inside of your wrist for comfort. After you
fill the bottle, or plastic water reservoir, with the delivery tube
clamped, unclamp the tube briefly so a little water runs out in order
to fill the tube with water. If you forget this step, you will give
yourself a tube-full of air first, which compounds the difficulty of
holding enough water to start the cleansing process.

From the floor, any enema lying down should include a fill from
your enema bag hung on a hook about shoulder height, so the bottom of
the bag will be a little above your hips. If you plan to use a
knee-chest position after the first fill, the hook from which you hang
the bag should be above your head; both will need to be higher if you
lie on a bed. The bag should be hung near your feet to maximize the
reach of the tubing.

You will get a better cleansing if you start your first fill lying on your LEFT
side. It's helpful to use plenty of LUBRICATION (such as olive oil or
KY Jelly) on your anus and also on the tip of the tube. Close the clamp
so that water is not flowing through it and insert the tube. When the
tip reaches a sharp bend in the colon, about 4 inches in, you will feel
resistance as you push it forward. At this point it helps to open the
clamp slightly on the delivery tube so water is trickling into the
colon only while the rectal tube is being pushed around that bend in
the colon. Then the clamp should be closed again while the tube is
being inserted along the next length of colon so you can relax your
rectal sphinctor. When the tip of the tube is being inserted, it
should slide along easily. For the first fill, at least a foot of the tube should be inserted.

When you decide you have inserted the tube to a preferred depth, you
will open the clamp on the delivery tube to allow water to fill your
colon very slowly. It helps to message your lower abdomen very gently
in the direction of the fill, referring to a picture of your colon.
When you feel your first urge to eliminate, close the clamp on the
delivery tube to stop the flow and take several deep abdominal breaths.
When you are comfortable, resume filling. You may alternate between
filling and breathing several times. When you are no longer able to
relax with a fill, it is time to remove the equipment and sit on the
toilet to eliminate. Do not set strict goals about how much water you
must receive before elimination. Sometimes your colon can easily
receive more water than others. Remember that the goal is elimination,
and if your are more relaxed with sitting on the toilet after a short
fill, you can always introduce more water later. As the water is
released, waste almost always accompanies it. If not,
you are probably constipated, and a second fill will get the waste
softened enough for release.

Taking an enema should involve several fills. For the second and
later fills, it works just fine to lie on your back, or use a
knee-chest position. Try to insert 2 or 3 feet of the tube. Inserting
it a yard is required to deliver the water up into the Transverse
Colon, and this will be important if you plan a retention enema with herbs or other substances added to the water.

What to avoid:
What affects the flow of water most strongly is gravity. Therefore it
is never effective to instill enema water while sitting on a toilet
because it will not flow uphill into the colon. It can be effective,
however, to use a small bulb syringe douche to insert a small amount of
water, less than 1 cup, into the rectum to induce a bowel movement
while sitting on the toilet. This is a very effective procedure for
bowel training and for initiating a bowel movement at a convenient
time; but this is a douche, and is not a cleansing procedure.

It is also not an efficient enema to use a short 3 inch rectal tip
which delivers water only a few inches into the rectum but below the
colon, especially in a sitting position. If the water does not flow in
about a foot, around the bend into the Sigmoid Colon, a large enema can
overstretch the rectum, damaging it. Therefore it is important both to
lie down during instillation, and to use a long rectal tube. Don't be
fooled by the fact that almost all commercial enema equipment provides
us with the damaging short rectal tip. I have long rectal tubes on
hand for $5.

Damage from a large enema in an upright sitting
position is, in my opinion, the primary reason some people believe
enemas are dangerous. Once the rectal sphincters have been
overstretched, a person may not be able to have a bowel movement
without resorting to an enema, leading to the belief enemas are habit
forming. I can assist my clients in such circumstances to rest their
damaged muscles with safer hydrotherapy methods and regain their own
ability to defecate. Far better is to use a safe enema procedure and
avoid the damage.